Connecting young Georgians to their national forest

The Georgia Mountains Children’s Forest Network creates opportunities for diverse young Georgians to experience and explore the national forest in their backyard. By enhancing and expanding successful programs offered through strong Forest Service partnerships, this Children’s Forest Network cultivates an understanding of public lands and fosters participatation in the care of these lands.

Despite having 875,000 acres of national forest lands in Georgia within 2 hours of major metropolitan areas, many North Georgia youth have little awareness of these places. Urban and rural youth alike often lack opportunities to participate in life-changing experiences in the outdoors.

The network focuses on addressing the cultural and financial obstacles that exist for underrepresented youth in making a connection to these places that belong to them.

Themes:

inclusion and collaboration

getting youth into the outdoors

developing 21st Century conservationists

The Children’s Forest is an inclusive effort that connects communities, land managers, and non-profits to provide a wide-range of innovative programs to engage North Georgians in fostering healthy, sustainable connections to the outdoors. The network shows how innovation through collaboration can increase the effectiveness of these programs.